How Political Artists Are Evading Bias And Censorship On Instagram

Amidst the concrete jungle of high-rise apartments in Noida, Siddhesh Gautam carefully examines the news updates online. "I try to see the world and the country through an anti-caste lens,” he explains, describing the inspiration behind his illustrations.

A visual artist by profession, 32-year-old Siddhesh goes by @Bakeryprasad on Instagram, where he shares his thought-provoking illustrations on caste, gender, and climate change. Born a Dalit, he turned to Instagram to tell stories from his community after realising there were few other avenues for such narratives.

"There is a void of imagery in the Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi communities because they did not get access to the technologies that would make images," Gautam explained. "I thought of filling that void of imagery and making imagery around the stories, which we do not have photographs of and might not have any visual reference to."

After more than five years on the platform, however, Gautam feels Instagram is no longer the welcoming space it once was.

For a while now, political content creators and artists have been accusing the Meta platform of algorithmic bias, shadowbanning their accounts, and removing their content without reason. The nail in the coffin was when Meta rolled out a feature limiting recommendation of political content on Instagram and Threads, last year. The default setting limits the recommendation of political content in users’ feeds automatically and without an explicit notification in-app about the change.

The feature has left Gautam and many other political activists and artists struggling to make their content reach a larger audience on the platform.

Shadowbans and Algorithmic Bias

Vibhu Grover, a 22-year-old documentary photographer from New Delhi, shares similar concerns. During the anti-CAA protests and farmers' movement in 2019-2020, Grover used Instagram to share photos and information about the protests. His content gained significant visibility—until it didn't.

"On January 26, 2021, when I was covering the farmers' protests, I posted a story from the Red Fort. Suddenly all the pro-government people started coming to my account and abusing me," Grover recalled. "No matter how many times I reported those comments, they never got removed. Meanwhile, I documented and uploaded facts, and it was taken down in a matter of minutes."

Instagram informed Grover that his posts were against community guidelines.

"There is a clear indication that Instagram is censoring anything against the ruling governments, and even hateful comments by accounts posting praises for the government is never censored."

The post that Instagram removed were photos taken by Grover showing farmers reaching the Red Fort. "It was very shocking for me because that image showed a couple of people standing, not protesting. I was surprised to see this photo could be recorded under ‘violent’ category," recalled Grover.

For 29-year-old Ruchir Lad, an architect and visual artist from Mumbai, Instagram was initially a place to share architectural content. Over time, his focus shifted to political themes.

"There is no specific process for my art; it often starts when I come across a news article that triggers an emotional response," Lad explained. "While this change pushed away some early followers, it also led me to discover a community of people who share similar interests."

Gautam, Lad, and Grover all feel the platform has become more focused on aesthetics and popularity than genuine storytelling and representation.

“Earlier, Instagram did not really care about it,” Gautam said. But, over time, as Instagram and other social media platforms became more popular attracting a wide user base, they started using censorship methods that were hard to ignore.

The Information Technology Amendment Rules of 2023 granted the union government the authority to remove any online content pertaining to its business that it deems to be false or misleading. Under these rules, social media platforms and intermediaries are deprived of the protection of the safe harbour principle if they fail to comply with government orders. The use of vague and broad wording “in respect of any business” raises concerns over its chilling effect on the right to freedom of speech and expression.

Lad pointed out specific instances of bias within the platform. "Instagram notoriously hides content related to sensitive topics like conflict, atrocities, hate crime, violence, and factual posts criticising the government and their policies. These posts and comments often get buried under posts, requiring users to scroll extensively to find them.”

Grover's observation aligns with Instagram's statement on February 9, 2024, about how the new feature is an extension of their existing policy where "Instagram won’t proactively recommend content about politics on recommendation surfaces across Instagram and Threads. If one still wants these posts recommended to them, then they will have the control to see them."

“With Instagram’s new feature limiting the visibility of political content, it’s clear that social media companies want to keep users away from politics,” Lad said. The visual artist from Mumbai has a pertinent question, “Even when political content is promoted, it often favors majoritarian perspectives. For example, I frequently come across reels from figures like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro. If the algorithm is sophisticated enough to understand user preferences, why am I still being shown this content?”

The Self-Censorship Response

Faced with increasing censorship, many artists have resorted to self-censorship to navigate Instagram's algorithms and policies.

From checking viewers on stories to filtering followers regularly, artists are taking various measures to ensure their content remains visible and reaches their intended audience. Though limitations vary for these artists, the lack of class privilege and no political background is common among them, making it difficult to navigate the platform successfully.

Manan Singh, a 30-year-old graphic designer in New Delhi, explained his approach: "We are constantly reminding ourselves that our thoughts can be wild but our work can’t reflect them. This is self-censorship."

Singh claimed that his posts critical of the government receive much low engagement and may even lead to repercussions. So, he is always trying to “strike a balance between expressing and avoiding potential backlash”.

''Whenever I am critical of the government, I see a drop in my reach,” he said.

Meanwhile, Smita Urmila, a 35-year-old performing artist from Maharashtra, has been carefully analysing the impressions on her account since the policy change was implemented. Urmila said she has been keeping her profile low-key on the platform by filtering her followers. "I keep track of who is checking my profile. If I find any suspicious person who is following me, I immediately block that person," she said.

The artist’s concerns extend beyond online visibility to real-world safety. “I started using this strategy to keep my social media profile clean. Because if I get detained, I will probably lose my job. We come from backgrounds where we do not have financial support to aid legal troubles. So, I have to be cautious," Urmila added.

Urmila has stopped posting content that is critical of the government. In addition to self-censoring her profile and content, she uses unique techniques to escape the algorithm.

"We are all aware of what kind of content is getting banned. If you talk about Gaza, your account may be shadowbanned,” she said. To avoid getting censored, Urmila started to make some intentional spelling errors in the captions. She created her own hashtags and stopped following the ones prevalent on the platform.

A Delhi-based poet who goes by Hamraaz chose anonymity after Facebook shut down his page and requested identity verification. On Instagram, he could remain nameless while writing about controversial issues—until policy changes began to threaten that freedom too.

Hamraaz sees these restrictions as part of a larger pattern. "All of these things will act to further marginalise already marginalised voices. At the current moment, social media may be able to raise awareness and provoke action. But in the long run, we will lose if we rely on it."

“We will need to get back to doing community walks, street theatre, in-person protests, and performances," Hamraaz suggested as the alternatives.

Lad agreed that independent platforms are crucial. "We need independent social media platforms where people can share their thoughts without fear of censorship or bias from corporate interests. The current landscape feels authoritarian; we need spaces owned by the masses."

Adapting to Survive

Despite the challenges, these artists continue to find ways to reach their audiences. They employ various strategies, from careful timing of posts to strategic use of hashtags and balancing political content with more personal material.

For instance, Ruchir Lad posts a picture of himself or his pet before posting political content on his stories. “This helps boost my reach,” he said. Even timing matters. “Whenever I have to post on Instagram, I post them around 9 am, which tends to work best for me.”

While he never uses pays to ‘boost’ his content, he said that he sometimes use hashtags like #hindurashtra or #ramrajya, hoping they might prevent his posts from getting shadow-banned or removed.

Manan Singh said he is constantly trying to align his thoughts and ideas with Meta’s guidelines. “When posting political content, I balance it out with posts about my daily routine or nature. That way, it helps avoid limiting my reach or risking shadow ban,” Singh said.

Gautam's experience has been more traumatic. After facing continuous backlash and trolling for his political art, including threatening calls from people who had his personal information, he deleted all his posts. "I felt helpless wondering what if they did anything to me or my family; who would be responsible? I simply deleted all of the posts from Instagram, preferring self-censorship, considering the safety of my family."

Decode reached out to Meta for a response on their feature limiting recommendation of political content that artists claim has suppressed their reach. The Mark Zuckerberg-led platform claimed that they are bringing in changes to their complicated moderation policy including, reducing censorship of political content while maintaining focus on serious violations like terrorism and child exploitation and allowing interested users to see more based on engagement signals. Meta also said that they plan to use Artificial Intelligence tools to offer second opinions on flagged content, alongside improving the account recovery process.

However, the tech company said that these changes are for the US only, and not in other countries.

Meanwhile, Ruchir is hopeful. “While there may be crackdowns on artistic expression now, history shows us that shifts in narrative are inevitable. The more they attempt to hide dissenting voices, the louder those voice will be,” he said.